Dampened railway car truck bolster

ABSTRACT

Damping and control device for a bogie bolster, of the type wherein each end of the bolster engages a housing formed on a side-frame, bears upon resilient elements, is laterally interfitted on both sides with adjoining portions of the sideframe, bears, on one side, directly upon the side-frame and, on the other side, upon the side-frame through the intermediary of a moving insert which is resiliently actuated, wherein said moving insert comprises a bent lever linked to an axis bearing upon the side-frame, one of the legs of the bent lever functioning as a support for a resilient element, whereas the second leg is contacting the moving insert.

United States Patent 1 1 Henricot 1 51 Feb. 20, 1973 54] DAMPENED RAILWAY CAR TRUCK 2,568,201 9 1951 Moline ..105 197 1) BOLSTER 2,079,985 5/1937 Busch ..105/l97D Paul Emile Ernest Alfred Andre Henricot, Ceroux-Mousty, Belgium Societe Anonyme Usines Emile Henricot, Court-Saint-Etienne, Belgium Filed: Dec. 21, 1970 App]. No.: 100,180

Inventor:

Assignee:

Foreign Application Priority Data Sept. 15, 1970 Belgium ..50453 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 8/1937 Hobson ..105/l97 D l 1, ii

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Primary Examiner-Drayton E. Hoffman Assistant Examiner-Howard Beltran Attorney-Richards & Geier [S 7] ABSTRACT Damping and control device for a bogie bolster, of the type wherein each end of the bolster engages a housing formed on a side-frame, bears upon resilient elements, is laterally interfitted on both sides with adjoining portions of the side-frame, bears, on one side, directly upon the side-frame and, on the other side, upon the side-frame through the intermediary of a moving insert which is resiliently actuated, wherein said moving insert comprises a bent lever linked to an axis bearing upon the side-frame, one of the legs of the bent lever functioning as a support for a resilient element, whereas the second leg is contacting the moving insert.

4 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures PATENTEDFEBZ'O I915 3,717, 106

SHEET 20F 2 INVENTOR. t

RE.E.A,A.Henr-Lco ATTOfLNEss DAMPENED RAILWAY CAR TRUCK BOLSTER The pending U.S. Patent application Serial No. 48,349 now U.S. Pat. No. 3,677,363, discloses a damping and control device for a bogie bolster, said device being essentially characterized in that each end of the bolster engages a housing formed on a side-frame, bears upon resilient elements, is laterally interfitted on both sides with adjoining portions of the side-frame, bears, on one side, directly upon the side-frame and, on the other side, upon the side-frame through the intermediary of a moving insert which is resiliently actuated. This application belongs to the same assignee as the present case.

This invention relates to an original and particularly efficient embodiment of such damping and control device.

The objects intended and reached by the novel arrangement are numerous: the obtainment of a varying damping providing a good rolling of the wagon in all load conditions, the simplified mounting of the bogie excluding the use of a press and a blocking rod as described in the above mentioned U.S.A. application, a simplified structure of the friction wedge and the adjoining portion of the side-frames, thereby making the manufacture and the mounting more simple and, finally, the elimination of interfering frictions, thereby reducing the wear of the working bogie.

These results are systematically reached by the damping and control device according to the present invention which is characterized in that, in the device disclosed in the U.S. application Serial No. 48,349, the moving insert resiliently actuated comprises at least one bent lever linked to an axis bearing upon the sideframe, one of the legs of said bent lever functioning as a support for a resilient element, whereas the second leg is contacting the moving insert.

The resilient element actuating the bent lever will generally comprise one of the suspension springs of the bogie.

The constituting elements of said damping and control device may be provided under any suitable shape and dimension and they may be mounted in a relative position determined in accordance with said constituting elements and the intended results.

For instance, the position of the axis or the bearing surface of the bent lever will be determined in accordance with' the desired leverage of the thrust exerted by the bent lever upon the moving insert. It will be also possible to determine the shape of the contacting surfaces between the bent lever and the moving inserts to provide maximum efficiency. For instance, said contacting surfaces may be curved, concave or convex.

An embodiment will be described hereafter with more details only by way of example, reference being made to the attached drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows a section of the characteristical part of the suspension with the damping and control device according to the invention:

FIG. 2 is a section on the line "-11 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the arrangement of FIG. 1.

The illustrated embodiment comprises the bolster 1 each end of which is introduced into a housing 2 formed on each side-frame 3. The bolster bears upon the bottom of said housings through the intermediary of coil springs 4, except the central coil spring 5 passing through the hole 6 formed in the bottom of said housing 2. At both ends, upon each side wall, the bolster 1 has a V-shaped re-entering portion 7-8 respectively with vertical faces on which wear plates 9-10 and 11- 12 are secured, e.g., by welding. The housings 2 of the side-frames have V-shaped projecting side walls 13-14 respectively with vertical faces, the wall 13 being also provided with welded wear plates 15-16 respectively. The side wall 14 has a window 17. In the latter, is fitted a V-shaped friction wedge 18 having a constant thickness with, rearwards, a truncated projection 19 the end of which is provided with a concave spherical cap 20.

The coil spring 5 passes through the hole 6 formed in the bottom of the housing 2, it bears upon the end of one of the legs of a bent lever 21 and it is duly guided through a bolt 22 disposed in the axis of the coil spring 5 and passing through the bolster 1 while bearing thereupon through head 23 and passing through the free end of the bent lever slightly projecting beyond and provided, near its corresponding end, with a nut 24, a certain clearance remaining between the nut 24 and the lower face of the free end of the bent lever 21 It will be observed that the bolt 22 forms a safety means with respect to an accidental lifting of bolster 1. In fact, it prevents the latter from leaving the housings 2 of the side-frames 3. The lever 21 bears freely upon a tubular axis 25 the axial shiftings of which are prevented through stops 26-27. The free end 28 of the second leg of the bent lever 21 has a spherical shape the curvature radius of which is similar to that of the concave spherical cap 20, both spherical portions being mutually interfitted under the thrust of the coil spring 5.

It will be readily apparent that this arrangement provides a friction stress which is more important when the bolster 1 is more loaded. This thrust depends also on the ratio between the length of the legs of lever 21. With this ratio, it is possible to vary the friction. stress in the desired area. It will be also apparent that the foregoing advantages are obtained in a simple, efficient and original manner.

It is of course apparent that the various constituting parts of said damping and control device may vary in their shapes, dimensions and relative positions within the scope of the invention.

What I claim is:

l. Damping and control device for a bolster of a bogie which includes said bolster and side frames, each end of said bolster being engaged in a housing of a distinct one of said side frames and being supported by spring elements, said damping and control device including a bent lever pivotally connected to the side frame forming a first and a second leg, a movable insert, a bolt with a nut on its threaded end and a coil spring, said first leg cooperating with said movable insert which bears against a side wall of said bolster and said second leg bearing at its end said coil spring which extends through the bottom of said housing and is disposed coaxially relative to said bolt, the head of which bears upon said bolster and the threaded end of which passes through and projects beyond the bottom of said housing.

2. Damping and control device for a bogie bolster according to claim 1, characterized in that the moving insert has the form of a wedge passing through a window formed in the adjoining wall of the side-frame, while of the bent lever has a spherical shape.

4. Damping and control device according to claim 2, wherein in its back wall the wedge-shaped movable insert has a recess having the form of a concave spherical cap, whilst the end of the first leg contacting the wedgeshaped movable insert has a convex spherical shape.

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1. Damping and control device for a bolster of a bogie which includes said bolster and side frames, each end of said bolster being engaged in a housing of a distinct one of said side frames and being supported by spring elements, said damping and control device including a bent lever pivotally connected to the side frame forming a first and a second leg, a movable insert, a bolt with a nut on its threaded end and a coil spring, said first leg cooperating with said movable insert which bears against a side wall of said bolster and said second leg bearing at its end said coil spring which extends through the bottom of said housing and is disposed coaxially relative to said bolt, the head of which bears upon said bolster and the threaded end of which passes through and projects beyond the bottom of said housing.
 1. Damping and control device for a bolster of a bogie which includes said bolster and side frames, each end of said bolster being engaged in a housing of a distinct one of said side frames and being supported by spring elements, said damping and control device including a bent lever pivotally connected to the side frame forming a first and a second leg, a movable insert, a bolt with a nut on its threaded end and a coil spring, said first leg cooperating with said movable insert which bears against a side wall of said bolster and said second leg bearing at its end said coil spring which extends through the bottom of said housing and is disposed coaxially relative to said bolt, the head of which bears upon said bolster and the threaded end of which passes through and projects beyond the bottom of said housing.
 2. Damping and control device for a bogie bolster according to claim 1, characterized in that the moving insert has the form of a wedge passing through a window formed in the adjoining wall of the side-frame, while the contacting surface between said wedge and the corresponding end of the second leg of the bent lever has a spherical shape.
 3. Damping and control device according to claim 1, wherein said movable insert has the form of a wedge passing through a window formed in the adjoining wall of the side-frame, while the contacting surface between said wedge and the corresponding end of the second leg of the bent lever has a spherical shape. 